Ok, first off, to let you all know. My Boss had an extra Alpine CDA 7894 sitting in his closet for sometime. when he gave it to me everything was in a bag and the face plate was in it respectable case.

So, I went to my buddy who knows how to put in stereo's without an issue, I haven't gone back to him yet, hoping maybe this may be an easy fix.

So, after we had got it in, it wasn't playing anything, no noise, no sound, nothing, I also had no manual, so, yeah, I left it for the time being and went to taco bell. While I was there, I had gotten impatient and decided to play with the radio while I waited, and I found this option, "Power IC Off", so, I switched it and BAM, there's my music, I was happy on the way home.

Welp, here's the thing, I was home for about 2 hours before I had to leave for work, I ripped an mp3 cd and then left. Well... all I get is snap, pop, crackle, and I can also hear the engine. Well, it didn't do it before I got home and then after, I'm befound and want to beat it with a bat, but I don't.

Any... suggestions?

P.S. I haven't tried anything yet, steps, heh.

 

I have a FULL ALPINE system in my 83 Camaro and might be able to help you out, as I wired the headunit, the four speakers with new wiring, and the 4-channel amplifier.

I am guessing you are using stock speakers. The POWER IC option, when ON, uses the head units INTERNAL amplifier to power your speakers. I had this option set before I put my alpine 4-channel amp in, afterwards, I turned it OFF to not use the headunits amplifer.

Regarding the odd sounds, my guess is your friend who installed this may not have used the proper wiring harness when installing the head unit, or perhaps did a very poor job making sure all the connections were set.

I'd pull the head unit out, take the faceplate bezel off of your console, held on by 3 or 4 star head screws, then either unscrew the mounting bolts for the adapter plate that surrounds the headunit and pull the headunit out far enough to see the wiring to the unit. Make sure your connections are tight. If it was done properly, there shouldn't be any electrical tape or any wire splicing back there. The wiring harness plugs into your FACTORY harness, and then plugs into the wiring coming from the head unit. If you see a lot of splicing, he didn't buy a harness and simply cut and spliced all the wires. If he cut the factory harness, that kind of sucks, because it's a bit of work to repair that. Also, if he cut the wires, the best you can do is make sure all the splices look good and are correct and TIGHT.

Let me know how it goes.

Best Regards!

 

Also if he did use an after market wiring kit to plug into your factory harness, make sure none of the wires pushed out of they're sockets while snapping the 2 connectors together. The aftermarket adaptors are pretty cheap and tend to do this.

 

Ok, these are what I have and it seems to me that everything is all hooked up right, I mean just the harnesses and it's all tight

My buddy had said to me that a speaker may be grounded out, and if one is, then all of them would give off that snap cracle pop.

So, here it is, I pulled off the covering for the rear speakers and there are these loose wires and then there are the other, or orignal wires, my buddy told me that the kid I bought the car from may have had the speakers going directly to the amp. So, if those loose wires connected to the rear speakers, then possibly this is my problem?, well I hope so... I WANT MUSIC... LOL

 

The lose wires, probably not GM Color Coded, would go directly to an amp, if you have the GREY/BLACK and PURP/BLACK (not sure on colors) going into the speakers, they are fine. Check the fronts. Do this by taking off the dash pad cover, pretty easy, and look at the connections.

Hope this helps.

 

Ok, alright, I don't know if this makes a different. On the wiring harness, where there is the yellow, black, and blue plugs, well, found out blue is rear speakers, yellow is front and black to power the unit. Well, I pulled both the yellow and blue plugs, and then put them one at time, front only and rear only, and still got the same thing, but like I said, I don't know if that at all makes a difference.

So, with just from blue plug (rear speakers), I got the snap crackle.
And with just the yellow plug (front speakers), I got the snap crackle.

and just a reminder, what I did was dissconnect the plugs in the wiring harness to see if the intererence from the rear or front, I got the same result.

 

It could be a defective audio output I.C. in the headunit. if its not completely roasted, it could cause crackly distorted audio to come out. Are you certain the speakers arent toast?

Also you said you are hearing the engine. If you are getting nasty alternator whine through the system, that could point to an insufficient ground, or worst case scenario a bad alternator or regulator. You may want to verify you have 13.8 volts at the head unit, and that it does not vary that much when you hit the gas.

I would probably first try removing the ground from the factory harness and putting it straight to the chassis to see if that makes a difference.

One more question, does it make this sound with the radio playing? Or only when you are using the CD player?